Hips safety, saddle width and misc. considerations

[RMSDivine]

Hi there everyone,
Recently I met what we call "Bio-mechanic", who shows to be an expert in measuring body parts and adjusting bike parts accordingly, such as saddle height, etc.

He said that the width of my original saddle (18cm) was exceeding optimal size, given the distance of my "sitz bones", at 11,5cm.

Under somewhat casual circumstances, given my age (55), I was diagnosed with a beginning stage of osteoarthritis, causing a bit of light discomfort to my knees when coming down the stairs with "cold" legs (for instance in the morning as soon as waken) and random discomfort to my hips.

I have explained to the orthopaedic doctor that, when riding the bike, I usually stand on pedals to protect my back on offroad terrain or on bumpy roads, which may cause in his opinion injuries to knees and hips in the long run, given my health "profile".

At the same time I was wondering if an incorrectly-sized saddle could harm my hips somehow.

Following the bio-mechanic advice, i have switched to a narrower saddle San Marco Aspide (13,2cm)

which was unbelievably hard and forced me to look for something softer. I am afraid that the Bio-Mechanic thought about me as a professional road rider who will hold long runs for hours, while I own a commuting, bi-suspensions, E-MTB (Riese Muller Superdelite) which is used to ride 16Km (8 in the morning + 8 at night) a day, in town and partial off road (roughly 1Km).

So I have opted for a softer and slightly larger (14cm) saddle, a Selle Italia S3 Saddle, which is proving to be a much better choice for my "Butt"

Any experience on this? Your thoughts on:

• Incorrect saddle width, causing hips injuries
• Protecting hips from shocks

 

[indianajo]

I suspect that bike riders that choose the narrow saddles carry most of their weight on their hands and legs and never actually sit down. Ie the "pro"posture is head forward, back level to ground, hips in the air. Great for top level athletes who wish to win races. Bad for people who might pop a disk bending their neck back to see forwards. Bad for people of a certain age whose hand go numb even sitting upright.
The one thing your expert got right IMHO was the groove in the middle of the saddle to protect your nerve from compression damage.
I've ridden tens of thousands of miles sitting as upright as I can find a bike to fit me. My hips are not damaged. The gluteal muscles do start to pain me after 2 1/2 hours on the saddle, and that is on a 27 cm wide saddle. I admit the duration of pain free ride shortened after age 58 when the 2 cm of fat below my ischia melted down to a couple of millimeters. My ischia are about 15 cm apart. I have no tendency to bone deterioration as I am male age 70. I've sat on wider saddles, but great width interferes with my legs as they push the pedals. My thighs are 60 cm circumference at the top.
About the neck. Read a textbook on ergonomics, the study of bodies in industrial work. Those texts are generally against exagurated angles of any body part. My Mother ruptured a neck disk sitting on an incorrect workstation age 48, and was in pain every second of the rest of her life. I look just like her, so I have personal history to induce me to avoid the head down back flat back posture. I was lucky such drop handlebar bikes were more expensive when I was 16 & buying a bike, to avoid the risk to my neck through thrift.
Preventing shock can be done with softer tires, suspension, or sprung seat post. I ride 26"x2.1" tires aired up to about 45 psi on a bike with no suspension. Various sprung seat posts are sold in the 9/16" post style if your bike will not allow such a fat tire. Various mountain bikes come with suspensions, at a cost of about a thousand dollars or euros.
Selle is a brand of saddle made in Italy of which some have a groove down the middle. I had a selle royale respiro, but found the covering too hard for my low fat hips. It did have a groove down the middle to clear the nerve. Serfas is selling bike seats with a gel covering, and they sell a gel cover for other brand seats also.
Happy shopping, and later riding.

 

[reed scott]

I'm hoping to find the perfect saddle one day. Maybe in heaven.

 

[RMSDivine]

@indianajo, basically, you're saying that a wrong saddle width will not compromise hips in any manner?

 

[indianajo]

I'm saying a wide saddle hasn't hurt me. You experience may vary. Women can suffer from osteoporosus. I'm more comfortable on a wide, soft saddle. I have extensive knee damage & pain from US Army training in combat boots. I have no hip problems age 70 despite thousands of miles walking or running and tens of thousands of miles bike riding.

 

[Elkman]

Some people have one leg that is longer than the other and this results in excessive hip movement to compensate. There are lifts for shoes to compensate in part.
Problem I have had with my hands is with the standard handle bars that are too thin and so there is too little contact area for my hands. I started putting on layer of tape to make the top section thicker before putting on the regular bar tape. There is also special tape meant for use with tennis rackets that would work quite well. I prefer drop bars as I have three different places to put my hands while riding.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I use the saddle you pictured first. it has the things I need flat top flat end to end and fairly soft. I would like something not so wide and a cutout but I don't seem to be able to handle the curves.

 

[indianajo]

My yubabike has an oversized lightweight seatpost, with an adapter for rail seats like brooks & serfas. I can't use cloud9 as a result, which fits 9/16" to 1/2" post. Selle Royale Respiro had rails, looked good, but was very painful after 90 minutes. I'm now riding Evo Cruiser Saddle 260 mm x 218 mm. It was half the price of Selle Royale Respiro from modernbike.com, but I can stand to sit on it for about 3 hours.